It has been almost 6 months that I joined cry. when I talk to people around me about the educational rights of a child and its condition in our country they tell me that it’s a nice thing to work and support for but there are other more serious and imp issues to deal with like corruption, global warming and crime for example. Of course these are of prime importance but are all these problems not related? Is it possible to make people honest, caring and responsible after a few speeches and moral lectures? Can a grown up man who’s been brought up witnessing bribes, politics and lies ever going to change his beliefs? It’s so hard to make a corrupt politician realize that all the power given to him by the system is for the benefit of the society and not his own. Even if we get determined to remove the corrupt people or punish the law breakers the change can never be permanent. There will always be some such people until they are taught at the 1st stage of their life- childhood. And this gives us the solution to most of the issues in our society-educate every child, academically, socially and morally. Children are the future of a country we were told, but we have never taken it literally. We see children as young as 10 year old working in shops, households and begging at roads. And this is after RTE has been enacted and there is free education and meals for all children who fall below poverty line! The education rate in India has gone from 65.38% to 74.04% in the last decade. But our capital, Delhi is 9th in order with a literacy rate of 86.3 %( same as Andaman & nicobar islands but lower than Chandigarh, Daman And Diu, Goa, Kerala, Lakshadweep , Mizoram , Puducherry And Tripura ). It’s not that we are not working to provide education to all. There are about 1780 MCD(municipal corporation of Delhi) schools in the capital that are to provide a number of facilities including mid-day meals, free books, copies, school bags, dresses, shoes and water bottles to the economically weaker sections of the capital. The main problem lies in the actual implementations of these schemes. Still there are about 25 lakh students enrolled in the 56 tent schools in Delhi that do not have adequate infrastructure and children are forced to study in tents without any rooms or furniture in this killing heat. Some schools even lack the basic amenities like drinking water and clean toilets (as inspected by the C.R.Y team) I would like to share an instance from last month when we had a puja at our home and decided to distribute lunch to the small kids from a nearby village. While eating I tried to make a conversation with them by asking about there schools. Surprisingly they didn’t go to school! I started a polite conversant with them and they replied to me in equally polite words. When we became friendly after a few minute’s chats suddenly 2 boys from the group, about 8 yrs each started making fun of the other to make me laugh and soon I heard them abusing each other playfully. They probably didn’t know the meaning of the words they were speaking but the language came because of their illiteracy. Doesn’t this behavior directly reflect the lack of education? The same boys had talked to me very politely when I talked to them in the same way. There short polite conversation was a small proof of the fact that they can be made to learn if educated properly and timely. Do extend a hand for child education and welfare because our future lies in them.
